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The automatic folder watch feature ensures that any external changes made to your files will be immediately detected by Daminion and automatically updated in the catalog.

The following external changes are detected automatically

Changes to file name

Deletion of files from the monitored folder by an external application

Addition of new files to the monitored folder without using the Daminion import function

Metadata added or edited by external applications

Any pre-existing subfolders within a watched folder are also automatically monitored. So you can simply enable folder watching for the top-level folder.

Although the folder-monitoring function is relatively resource efficient, it is not advisable to turn it on for the entire catalog. It is more efficient to limit monitoring to the most relevant folders.

The automatic folder-watching feature has several useful applications.

You can, for example, define a monitored folder as your “inbox”, into which all new files imported into Daminion are initially copied from external sources. This has the advantage of allowing all users to access these files in the network without having to individually import them with their own Daminion client. In a second step, these additions can then be inspected – either in Daminion or in any image-viewing program – to sort out unwanted images. Finally, once the inventory is deemed okay, then any Daminion user with appropriate access privileges can move these files into their final destination folders.

You can, for example, create a monitored import folder into which you copy all the files you wish to add to Daminion. This is advantageous when collaborating with other users, because rather than everyone having to import the files individually, they can simply be granted access through the Daminion Web-client.

In the second step, the newly added files can then be viewed – either in Daminion or any image-viewing program – and unwanted images can be deleted.

Another useful application is for certain folders to be automatically monitored for external modification. This is useful, for example, when working with images that you want to edit with external programs. Thus, you can open, edit and re-save these pictures using the same filename, and Daminion will automatically recognize and note the time and date of any external file modifications that have occurred since the last import or update.

Please note that when changes are made to image content by an external image editor, the thumbnail preview images are not automatically updated. To update the thumbnails of edited files in Daminion, simply use the keyboard shortcut [Ctrl + B] and Daminion will reanalyze the image files and generate new thumbnails.